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Pressed again, the New York congressman responded: “I have not had any conversations with any candidates about campaigning or not campaigning with President Obama. Those decisions are best left with individual candidates and members.”

Obama’s poor standing in the polls has added to Republicans’ hopes of making gains in this year’s midterm elections. Israel, however, highlighted numbers that he said showed peril for the GOP.

The data show Republicans are losing the support of middle class voters as they embraced a conservative message, Israel said during a 30-minute briefing.

“Their message is only at the base, and they lose moderates,” Israel said. “The next six months is going to be about who’s got your backs.”

During the briefing, Israel pushed back on a new House Republican initiative aimed at growing the GOP by 11 seats, calling it “showboating.” He dismissed repeated questions about how many seats he thought Democrats would gain or lose in November.

“My job is to just focus on the fundamentals,” he said. “I just don’t find it useful to handicap this early in the cycle.”

“Most of the House races haven’t really started yet,” Israel added. “We haven’t stormed the hill yet in a lot of these races.”